Quotes About Misunderstanding

Whereas all liberals are thought to erupt self-righteously whenever they feel like it, conservatives believe that they themselves are never permitted to say what they really think.

Leftwing people find it very hard to get on with rightwing people, because they believe that they are evil. Whereas I have no problem getting on with leftwing people, because I simply believe that they are mistaken.

There are cultural issues everywhere - in Bangladesh, Latin America, Africa, wherever you go. But somehow when we talk about cultural differences, we magnify those differences.

Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence.

My mum didn't understand that education was an important thing. She couldn't do my homework with me. I was helping her read stuff. She once brought shaving soap thinking it was whipped cream.

SpongeBob is a complete innocent - not an idiot. SpongeBob never fully realizes how stupid Patrick is. They're whipping themselves up into situations - that's always where the humor comes from.

One of the problems with putting Huck Finn into a movie or on the stage is, you always make the white people stupid and racist. The point is, they don't know they're racist.

But you know, my dad called me the laziest white kid he ever met. When I screamed back at him that he was putting down a race of people to call me lazy, his answer was that's not what he was doing, and that I was also the dumbest white kid he ever met.

It's unfortunate that in an interview sometimes things can seem so black and white.

It may be added, to prevent misunderstanding, that when I speak of contemplated objects in this last phrase as objects of contemplation, the act of contemplation itself is of course an enjoyment.

Avoid miscommunication. The price you pay for it is horrendous.

I'm the priest who has been mistaken for an ATM machine.

If, at a party, I say I'm a poet, people have a hard time responding, almost as if I'd said I'm a priest.

Several times I drew a critical cartoon and then, at the last moment, stopped myself from putting it out in print. I thought it would be misunderstood, be a politically incorrect thing to do.

Many of the articles printed over the last few months have ended up painting a picture of me that is more than a little distorted.

I'm sure you have arguments with your friends, but they don't get printed up and magnified in the papers.

Oh, what am I for the Frenchman or the Italian? A guy who was in prison, a revolutionary, somebody they once read something about in the newspaper - but not me.

People just don't know what civilian prisoners of war are.

Most people have the wrong idea about me because I've been very private.

I think often the West does not understand the history and the privilege of wearing a hijab. They always think of oppression.

I don't do much political stuff because our nation is so divided, we can't say one thing without the other side automatically assumes that you are pro the other side.

Let me be clear about this. I don't have a drug problem. I have a police problem.

I think the biggest problem working with me would be that I'm an only child, and so I have an internal dialogue that goes on that I just assume you can hear.

I have a producer friend who despairs that I come across as rather frosty and never show the real me, and she might have a point.